Federal Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen and the German Solar Industry Association have agreed to bring forward the reductions of financial support for solar power in order to facilitate the further expansion of photovoltaics in Germany. The government revealed late last week that, together with the industry, it was set to bring in a reduction of up to 12%, which would be pulled forward six months to July 1st this year.
Martifer Solar has entered into a binding agreement with Sunflower for the engineering, procurement, construction, operation and maintenance for 13MW of PV plants throughout the Piedmont regions of Italy. Martifer and Sunflower have previously worked together on two recently completed 2.1MW PV plants in the Province of Alessandria.
Centrosolar Group is to issue a five-year bearer bond in Austria and Germany with a value of up to €50 million. The corporate bond will accrue interest at 7% per annum, and the securities prospectus required for the bond is expected to be approved by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BAFin) on January 20, 2011.
In an attempt to consolidate its position as one of the world’s leading integrated solar companies, BP Solar has decided to enlist the help of a specialist partner to help manage some of its portfolio of off-grid projects. Control of French BP Solar’s off-grid operations has been handed over to Phaesun.
Having been on Supervisory Board of Q-Cells since 2002, Marcel Brenninkmeijer the Good Energies investment representative has resigned his position. He will now be engaged at the Good Energies Foundation in promoting global access to renewable energy sources in order to ease poverty. Brenninkmeijer founded Good Energies in 2001.
Canadian Solar has revealed that it was one of the principal module suppliers for SunEdison’s recently-completed 70MW plant in Rovigo, Italy. Rovigo will power 16,500 homes in northeast Italy and has been labelled by SunEdison as the largest single-operating PV solar power plant in Europe.
Building work on Boralex and Q-Cells’ 4.5MW solar park in southern France is set to commence after the firms finalised financing and planning for the €14.6-million venture.
Elkem Silicon Materials (polysilicon) and Elkem Solar (solar wafers) are part of a business divesture plan of Norwegian conglomerate Orkla to primarily state-owned Chinese chemical firm, China National Bluestar. The US$2 billion all-cash transaction also includes Elkem’s aluminium and carbon’s businesses. Completion of the deal is expected during the first half of 2011.
The Finnish cleantech company, Beneq, has newly received a combined €9 million investment from Finnish Industry Investment, Via Venture Partners and other private investors. Beneq is known as a supplier of production and research equipment for nano-scale thin-film coatings and developed the nAERO aerosol-assisted process. nAero is a deposition method that allows for production of low-haze and high-haze transparent conductive oxide (TCO) coatings for in-line and off-line coated products. The company is presently shifting from its piloting to industrial production phase.
IBC Solar has sold its 11.2MW facility in Manzano, Italy to Allianz Specialised Investments. With 47,000 polycrystalline and 3,600 thin-film hybrid modules, the Udine-based park is one of IBC’s largest developments and was connected to the grid on December 7, 2010.
